When Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness took home the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, the movie and its director landed on the global map. Triangle of Sadness has since become an international fan favorite ever since it had its world premiere at Cannes, despite it remarkably being Östlund’s English-language feature debut. Triangle of Sadness begins with the story of Carl (Harris Dickinson), an English male fashion model dating Yaya (Charlbi Dean in her final film role). Yaya is a fellow model, but is more successful than Carl: while he struggles to land gigs, she is opening fashion shows.
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The two have a tumultuous relationship at the beginning of the movie, but then it sails into new territory when they are invited onto a luxury yacht. Carl, who is bent on helping Yaya’s social media career flourish, essentially follows her around and takes pictures. When the drunk captain of the boat (Woody Harrelson) gives up on pandering to his rich customers, everything goes downhill when a group of pirates sinks the ship, effectively switching the class dynamics established during the first two-thirds of the movie. However, up until then, Triangle of Sadness exposes some hard truths about the fashion industry and what it takes to be an influencer.
An Obsession with Social Media and Aesthetics
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The fashion show scene where Yaya is introduced offers a lot of biting commentary during that brief moment on the catwalk. There is a message about climate emergency and crisis, which has a deep, layered context to it. While the fictional show in the movie is using this as an aesthetic crutch to design an entire show around, the fashion industry in real life is one of the biggest polluters on the planet. Not only are the working conditions for those working in factories in Bangladesh and Indonesia below average, even fatally dangerous at times, but the sheer amount of resources and toxins, chemicals, and dyes simply dumped into freshwater resources is appalling. Triangle of Sadness’ fashion show falls in line with the irony of greenwashing in the industry, adding a subtle bit of humor for those looking deeper into its messages.
In addition to this, models make very little money through runways and commercial shoots. Not everyone is a supermodel with famous or rich parents, and Yaya and Carl’s situation becomes a lot clearer with this knowledge. Yaya might be well-known on social media and get a lot of free perks due to being an influencer, but she does not have real money in her bank account. Hence the scenes where Carl furiously pays for everything — Yaya most likely does not have money, only free clothes or goods gifted to her. Carl, who does not get as many bookings as her, is probably trapped in a similar but different cycle, thus why he has a triangle of sadness and the booking agents suggest he get Botox.
It’s Competitive and Elitist
One of Triangle of Sadness’ opening scenes sets up the framework of who Carl is in the system quite well. He is shown in a room full of male models, of varying heights, sizes, and ethnicities, and they are all topless. An interviewer and cameraman weave through the throngs of bodies, but he does not care what these men have to think. In one critical moment, he asks them to make faces and poses based on H&M and Balenciaga, providing a mocking satire about how brands have certain aesthetics, but also how the job is like an empty, objectifying performance. The subtext at this moment is also important: when the camera’s gaze is on these models or the eyes of someone important, they are forced to perform. But in an industry like this one, the most minuscule details will knock someone down the totem pole.
Despite their status as models, and Yaya having all the social media followers she does, the couple is immediately exposed when they enter the yacht’s premises. Carl, enraged by a topless male worker talking to Yaya while they sunbathe, reports him to the manager, effectively getting him fired. At this moment, Carl has betrayed one of his people, and there is a direct parallel to the first scene here while the man is shirtless. Suddenly, Carl is like the casting directors who turned their noses up at him in the opening scenes, scorning a worker — which he was doing with his model — and looking down upon him due to status.
However, Carl and Yaya are just cogs in a different machine. Having participated in the fashion industry, seeking glamour and wealth through means that don’t produce those things, they are also useless when it comes to surviving on the island. During the fashion show scene, Carl’s status is pretty obvious when he is kicked out of the front row for some higher-ranking guests. Now placed towards the back, he can only sit back and watch in awe as the show begins. Those in the front row, the wealthy elite of the industry, are on their phones the entire time and appear disinterested when it comes to the actual show. Nowadays, it does not get more real than that: the fashion industry, especially with the barrier of entry for models, is known to be like all of this.
